HEBMÜLLER VW TYPE 14A Photos-Information-Personal Archives

[overrestored]

Bob, thanks for all your research and sharing.

EDIT UPDATE>>> SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT RED TYPE WAY DOWN THIS PAGE FOR ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING POSTS>>>

I was wondering if you have ever seen this memo (and the info in the posts that follow) from the Archives at Wolfsburg

It is an internal memo from Herr Orlich at VW (who I assume was some sort of inspector of outside suppliers to Wolfsburg) ... to Herr Nordhoff.. the director of VW at the time.

The date of the memo is 6 days before the fire at Hebmuller.

It is a scathing review of the lack of quality at the Hebmuller factory, the lack of trained workers etc. Basically Orlich feels that introducing the Heb through the VW Dealer network would create unhappy dealers and customers.

I have always wondered whether or not this memo.. dated July 16th, 1949 was what may have caused somebody to set the fire that happened at Hebmuller just six days later. I am not saying that the fire was set... I am just wondering if it was an accident or not...

Eric

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

another VW internal memo regarding Hebmuller (and Karmann)... from a month earlier... June 1949:

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

The Hebmuller telegram... two days after the fire... July 25:
(From Wolfsburg archive... sorry for bad photocopy... it's all they had)

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

Then came this "report"... 4 days after the Hebmuller fire... July 27th, 1949

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

Then... on August 18th of 1949 comes this memorandum:

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

then on august 25th, 1949 comes this memo...:

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

The VW Heb contract:

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

this is the inspection quality report on Heb 044, (VW Chassis 100949)that herr Orlich was mentioning in his memo to Nordhoff... (see a few posts back for the reference)

(Sorry for the "bleed" through of the photocopy type... it is all I could get)

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[overrestored]

SO.. to wrap all this up succinctly:

-VW made a deal with Hebmuller.
-Heb started production.
-VW sent inspectors to look at the first cars and didn't like what they saw.
-Heb had a fire less than a week after VW rejected their build quality.

Sad.

There is a lot more to it if you read the details in the documents above... but that is basically it.

I don't have any other Hebmuller documents...

I received these documents about twenty years ago from a party who wishes to remain anonymous... as they were able to get deep into the archive at VW. I loaned copies to a friend who for a time had them up on a site called Hebmuller.com. They were also translated into english at that time on that site.... probably 15 years ago. That site was taken down after a couple of years and I don't know what happened to the translations. Unfortunately I don't have them. If anyone has copies of the translations... it would be really cool if you could post them here.

As Hacksaw Bob has mentioned... all of this data should be public knowledge.

Best

Eric
_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[usariemen]

[overrestored]

[usariemen]

Here is a newspaper report about the fire.
Not a period one. Years later one of the Hebmüller brothers reported about the event.

He tells that at that saturday in july the staff was off work.
Just a few mechanics where around for repairs.
The story goes that one of them threw a cigarette away and the paint shop caught fire.
The plants fire department was not able to stop the fire and until more help and water arrived, most of the plant was burned down.

_________________
Master of my domain!

[overrestored]

So... based on that article... It looks like a locksmith working at the factory on a saturday... tossed a cigarette butt down when he was outside the building... but it got sucked up by a large fan and flew into the paint room... where it landed in a bit of lacquer paint...

and that was that.



Is my translation accurate?
_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[usariemen]

Yes, quite accurate.
It is not said it was sucked up and blown inside from outside.
It is just said that it seems that a cigarette was thrown away in a paintbox and glew up again by wind coming through a big fan from the outside.
That glowing cigarette lit up the paint and then from the paint shop the whole plant.
_________________
Master of my domain!

[overrestored]

Here's a map of all the Locksmiths near Wuppertal... near Hebmuller! I wonder if the fellow is still alive!

_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[usariemen]

[gattinator]

You maybe will find the translation as you said with the waybackmachine . It often helps

[overrestored]

[overrestored]

Here's the english translations..

A friend forwarded me the link to the now defunct Hebmuller.com... via the "internet wayback machine":

https://web.archive.org/web/20081028190912/http://www.hebmuller.com/History-English.htm
_________________
some cars
some bicycles
some old skateboards
One cool crazy cat
a yard full of fruit trees
26 chairs for some reason
a crapload of old shoes
a lot of books on history of the Mexican Ranchos
200+ kamax bolts... stacked in rows

[Hacksaw-BoB]

Hi overrestored

Eric, I was aware of the quality problems of the Hebmuller VWs but have not seen the VW internal documents before

Many Thanks for introducing them to this thread

. . . especially the English translation

Also the information about the fire as well

Very Interesting history . . . . . .
_________________
Hacksaw BoB

http://www.VintageVolkswagenModels.com

Collector of Vintage VW Toys

BoB's Restor-Version Shop